$re = '/^(X|IX|IV|VI{0,3}|I{1,3}) ?[+/*-] ?(X|IX|IV|VI{0,3}|I{1,3})$/m';
$str = 'III //false
III +
III + X
I + I
II + II
III + III
IIII + IIII
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php